


Purrhaps Just A Tad Too Close

by orphan_account



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, actually its kinda slow burn, although the first chapter is misleading, cursing, i have a hc that marinette is actually a total foul mouth lol, like very little angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 16:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5709961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Chat and Marinette are friends who occasionally ramble about their crushes to each other.</p>
<p>Just friends, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You've Gotta be Kitten Me

Marinette hasn’t thought about Adrien in a while.

Hah! Yeah, right, as if. 

As a matter of fact, it has been 1 day and about 2 hours since she last thought of him, his smile, his golden hair and sparkling eyes. She mentally resets her counter back to 0 and starts anew.

It has been 2 seconds since she’s last thought of him.

It has been- Fuck. There he is, in her head, that gorgeous asshole. 

She resets the counter in her head and exhales, looking at the calculus homework in front of her and groaning loudly. She _had_ to do well on this next test, it was worth well over 5% of her grade, and damn it all if she’s not going to push herself to get an A on it.

Marinette was a smart girl, she could probably do well if she tried hard enough, but god, the distractions. There was Adrien, there was Chat Noir, there was Ladybug, but mostly it was just Adrien that occupied her thoughts, granting her an easy distraction from the work she was supposed to be doing.

Not only that, but Chat seemed to be coming around quite a lot lately to hang out. They mostly just talked- usually about their crushes. 

Chat had finally gotten over Ladybug, and had apparently moved on to focus on some girl in one of his classes. She didn’t mind, not really. After all, what Chat had felt towards her wasn’t _really_ love, right? Or else he wouldn’t have moved on so quickly.

That logic really didn’t help the gnawing in her stomach, disappointment hidden and yet settling deep into her.

It sucked, in the simplest of terms, it _really_ sucked.

But there wasn’t really anything she could do about it. She was Ladybug, and he was Chat, and sure, sometimes she wonders how it would have been, _could_ have been, if only she had confessed her feelings for him as well.

But that would have probably been a disaster and anyways…

Adrien pops into her mind and her mood plummets even further. Would she have been okay with that? Just abandoning all of her feelings for the boy and redirecting them towards Chat?

Feelings didn’t work like that. 

She sighs wistfully. _If only they did…_

A knock on her trap door jerks her out of her thoughts abruptly.

_Ah, Chat._

Quickly glancing at the clock before she opens the latch, she notes the time. _7:03, huh. It seemed that she had wasted a perfectly good Saturday simply lazing about. That wasn’t very much like her._

Marinette pushes those thoughts out of her head as she faces Chat, smiling at him gently. 

“Hey, princess,” Chat has his legs dangling through her ceiling as he waves an innocent hand (paw _?)_ at her. “How’re you doing on this purrfect evening?”

“I’m doing pretty good,” She answers politely, waving back. “How are you?”

“I’m _feline_ fine, Marinette, thank you fur asking.”  

Those puns don’t warrant an actual response, so she stares up at him, unimpressed.

He stares back intently, as if watching her face for any signs of amusement. Unfortunately for Marinette, her lips coincidentally, _coincidentally,_ twitched upwards, and Chat let out a quick cheer.

“ _There_ it is!” He smiles down at her vibrantly, and Marinette feels the air leave her lungs in a rush.

Instead of acknowledging her fluttering heart, she turns towards her desk, returning to her chair with a fiery blush spreading on her cheeks. 

_This was just because she had thought of him before he had come_ , she reasons _, it's just embarrassment._ For some reason, she can’t even bring herself to believe her own lies.

Chat Noir jumps down from his perch and closes the trapdoor quietly, sitting at the edge of her bed, staring at the floor.

Quiet. Chat Noir didn’t make a sound besides his breathing, seemingly uncomfortable.

And he stays that way for more than a minute.

It’s so unlike him, unlike Chat, that Marinette bursts out with a worried “Are you okay?” 

He's taken aback a bit at her outburst, but if anything, he seems to be comforted by her care. 

“Yeah, I’m purrfectly fine, just thinking about stuff."

“Stuff?” Marinette prods slightly.

“Yeah; stuff and things.”

He grins up at her, and her heart stops beating for a second. Great. Just what she needed, for her already red face to turn even redder.

Chat cocks his head, playing dumb as he watches Marinette cough slightly and turn her chair back to her homework. She took a pencil into her slightly shaking hand, biting her lip nervously.

“Anyways, Kitty,” Marinette needed air to breathe, and some space, a lot of space and a pint worth of reason, because she can’t stop thinking about his smile. _Think about Adrien_. “I was actually doing homework so-" 

“Purrhaps I could help you, purrincess.” Chat gets up languidly, and she keeps her eyes directly fixated on her textbook, reading the same line of text over and over, but not processing anything.

He comes to rest beside her, leaning on the table casually.

“Hmm,” Chat taps a finger to his mouth in a mocking way, “Maybe we should start with lesson one: ‘ _How to Hold a Pencil Correctly.’_ ”

Marinette looks down at her hand, only just noticing that it was flipped, the eraser pointing downwards, crushed in her tense, sweaty fist.

She laughs, as if that would make it any better.

“Oh, I was just, you know,” Gesturing to the paper, she casually erases a line of work and flips the pencil back around.

“You realize that was right, right?”

That was certainly news to her.

  1. Her work was correct



and

  1. Chat was good enough at calculus to know that from a glance.



    4.   Marinette is very good at math.

“Uh, right.” She replies in very clever and intelligent wording, refusing to meet Chat’s eyes as she reaches with the other hand to loosen her collar.

_Was it just her, or did the room turn into a sauna suddenly?_

_No, wait. That’s her own sweat._

_Gross._

Marinette discontinues her internal dialogue as she puts down her pencil and looks up at her friend and partner. 

His eyes meet hers, and they’re fire, sparking something deep inside of her. 

Her mouth goes dry, and she stares up at Chat awkwardly like a deer in headlights. She could feel her heartbeat straight into her throat, and her fingertips shake in place.

He’s close. He’s not just close, he’s _really_ close and Marinette isn’t moving away, can’t move away. She feels hypnotized, staring into Chat’s green eyes, the only word echoing in her suddenly not-so-surprisingly-empty brain was the word “ _ **Shit**_ ,” bolded, underlined, and italicized to the point of distortion.

Their noses touch and Marinette snaps out of her stupor, realizing that _he’s going to kiss her._

_He’s going to kiss her, and she’s going to like it._

Chat breathes out slowly, breath fanning over her face, and he stares at her unabashedly.

“Shit, I-“

“- _I’MGONNAGOGETSNACKS_ -“ Marinette jumps up quickly, knocking their foreheads together with a dull thump.

Chat recoils physically, and she matches his actions, raising her hand to her forehead and holding the spot that radiates pain.

Marinette notices the shocked look on Chat’s face, and realizing he’s just as embarrassed by the mood as she is. 

She also notices his feet shuffling slowly backward, looking as if he’s about to escape.

_Does she want this? Does he want this?_

Chat is babbling some sort of apology, and she doesn’t really pay attention until he reaches the bed, moving to leave.

Her head is spinning, but Marinette manages to look at her partner with clear eyes and voice.

“Stop, Chat; _stay,_ ”

She doesn’t really register what she’s doing until his forearm is in her grip, and he’s whipping around to look at her. He doesn’t tug on her arm at all, and Marinette feels her hand slide down to meet his.

Chat meets her eyes with a surprised look, half-expecting her to yell at him or something of the sort. However, he stops dead in his tracks obediently and allows Marinette to finish talking.

“I’m going to go get some snacks. For you and for me,” Marinette feels weirdly confident and isn’t sure what exactly to say, but she manages to say something anyway. She takes a deep breath, “and you’re going to stay here, if you want. We need to talk this out. At least, I think we do.”

She turns to leave after receiving a short nod from Chat, indicating that he wouldn’t _~~stray away~~ _ wander off from her bedroom. 

At least, she hoped that’s what he meant. 

Marinette hears him sit on her bed as she closes the door behind her, and is momentarily comforted. 

He wouldn’t leave, would he?

She faces the now-dark hallway and slowly feels her knees weaken, her courage and confidence slipping away to leave her by herself- plain old Marinette. 

Plain, old, Marinette. Who had almost kissed a superhero.

She hadn't even been Ladybug, amazing, confident superhero; she had been Marinette and that seemed to be impossible.

Oh, god.

She sank to the floor in embarrassment, hands coming up to shield her face from the idiocy that was her own reaction. She just-

Marinette couldn’t believe it. She just left him in there, in her bedroom, alone.

She had to pull herself together, if not for her sake then for Chat’s.

And so, she straightens up carefully, dusting off her shorts and heading down to the kitchen, grabbing a few random croissants and pastries and putting them on a plate, staring down at it nervously. What if neither of them talked? What if it was awkward forever? Would they be able to still be friends?

She stifled a groan as she remembers his face, pleased, with a slight tinge of red on his ears. God, she was such an _idiot._

However, this is definitely not the time to mope around and pity herself. Marinette grabs the plate and silently treks back up the stairs, dreading the awkwardness that was sure to come.

And sure enough, as soon as she had closed the door, Chat got up, eyes scrunched closed, with his fists tightly wound into small balls, shaking against his side,

 “I WANT TO KISS YOU.”

He looks away as if steeling himself, as Marinette stares at him dumbfounded. 

_Okay, this is okay._ Marinette tells herself to breathe, _We can work with this._

_Everything’s going to be okay, its just teenage hormones, so what? He wants to kiss someone that’s fine that’s perfectly fine and he wants to kiss me, I’m that someone, this is okay, this is so okay-_

“AND I- I THINK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU.”

_Oh. Oh god._

 

 

 


	2. lifes not what its cracked up to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which i decide to actively write crack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im bak

Sometimes Marinette has the inexplicable urge to just off herself. Just toss herself right off her balcony- that’d be really great right now, _super amazing, just wonderful._

Oh, did she say ‘inexplicable urge?’ That was obviously a plain lie, as the explanation was sitting in front of her, on _her_ bed, staring her down with only the greenest of eyes. She stares right back, chanting a string of very original curses in her head, most of which started with ‘M’ and ended in ‘otherfucker.’

How long had he known? The stupid cat wanted to kiss her after all- there was no way in hell that he didn’t know. Why else would he ask for something so odd?

Maybe he wasn’t sure yet, though. She could probably recover smoothly- maybe even play up the ‘fangirl’ aspect? Marinette resolved to clear her name- the dangers associated with having Chat know her personally and with the mask on were just too high. The dangers to her mental health, of course.

Sure, there was Hawkmoth too, but really with a flourishing romance like this one, who cared?

Paris apparently, as the little shits couldn’t stop getting akumatized for two seconds. She’d been on the toilet during the last one- like, how rude can that akuma be? Marinette was not pleased with her city, currently.

Marinette suddenly realizes that shes been staring at her partner intensely for the last few minutes as she monologued to herself.

Chat looks at her expectantly, and she remembers that she has yet to give an awkward answer to his awkward proposal. She glances warily at her trap door and reasons that she can’t just leave- Chat is surely quicker than her, with his suit and all.

Marinette doesn’t really have a smart answer for him so she comes up with a witty response on the spot that is truly amazing in its delivery.

“I’m definitely not Ladybug.”

Marinette decides that she hates herself.

Chat looks confused and tilts his head to the side, eyebrows raising through the leather mask.

“I… Know?” He speaks slowly, as if trying to comprehend the full stupidity of her statement. “I’m fully aware that you’re not Ladybug, Marinette. That’s not why I like you.” 

“Oh,” She responds, lamely.

Chat presses his lips together and shifts his eyes to her wall, turning his head upwards to stare at the pictures of Adrien. 

“I understand if you, uh, don’t reciprocate the feelings? I guess?” He questions further, “I mean after all, you like Adrien and I’m... Me…”

Marinette sharply inhales. “That’s not it at all! Do you actually think that’s the problem?

 It’s just… Are you sure? That you would rather pick me over Ladybug?” 

He looks down at his hands, nails picking at her comforter. “Well… I mean, Ladybug has already made it quite clear that I’m not the one for her.”

Marinette feels a slight sense of guilt, but twinges at the implication.

“So I’m the second choice, huh?”

“What?! No, no, no! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound that way-” He cuts himself off, taking a breath. “I just meant that, I’ve had time to, y’know, rethink our relationship… And fall for someone else?”

He poses the last sentence as a question, the end turning up in a lilt.

Marinette, against her best judgment, finds it kind of cute. She breathes silently, thinking about her next move- should she go with her gut and accept? But that would just- and what if shit hit the fan? Once more, her mouth opened before she had time to really think.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Okay to what?”

“Okay to all of it, I guess?” She hesitates. “I like you too. And I certainly wouldn’t mind kissing you.” 

“You wouldn’t mind? I mean, are you sure you like me?”

“I mean. Sure. I do like you.”

“But then why wouldn’t you mind?”

“I don’t know, because I like you?”

“No, I mean like,” Chat puts his fingertips together and brings them up towards his mouth, frustrated. “Shouldn’t you be like ‘Yes! Of course I would _love_ to!’?”

Marinette mirrors his actions. “I mean, do you want me to be like that?”

“Well, I want you to be yourself.”

“Well, okay then.”

“Okay.”

“Great.”

“Wait, what? What did I just say ‘okay’ to? Are we dating or not?”

Marinette lowers a hand, keeping the other one on her mouth as she hums, contemplating his statement. “I mean, do you want to?” 

“We don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

“We could, though. I wouldn’t be against it.” 

“Me neither.”

“Alright then.”

They’d had an entire, 3-minute-long conversation, and had gotten nowhere. This was an excellent start to... Their relationship? Whatever this was.

 It seemed that Chat was thinking the exact same thing, as he looked at her with a slightly constipated look on his face. He opens his mouth to speak once more, and then shuts it slowly. He looks about as confused as she feels. If this was how all conversations with him from now on would go, Marinette once again debates leaving through drastic means.

“Wait, okay, I’m sorry, I’m still confused.”

It’s Marinette’s turn to nod, motioning for him to speak.

“So are we dating or not?”

Marinette shrugs. “Do you want to?”

The constipated look is back as he tries to appear nonchalant. “I mean, I don’t particularly care either way; what about you?”

“Same.”

Marinette thinks that she can feel Tikki in her hair, rustling around, most likely trying to knock herself out and save herself from this disastrous exchange.

They spend the next few seconds staring at each other, until Chat’s ring beeps.

Marinette presses her lips together in an awkward smile. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later?”

“Yep! I mean,” he stumbles over the edge of her bed, foot getting wound into the comforter. He plants face first into the floor as Marinette looks on, pitying the poor boy. “I’ll see you around, uh... buddy?”

He rises and goes in for a handshake while she goes in for a hug. He hits her solar plexus rather harshly, and Marinette is left wheezing.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry!” Chat grabs her arm gently, attempting to comfort her. “Are you okay?!” 

Marinette stares up at him in incredulity. “Really?! You’re asking me that now? After you punched me straight in the chest?”

“I didn’t-“ Chat looks off to the side, slowly dropping his voice. “I didn’t mean to.”

She sighs, cracking a smile at his dejected look. “I know. You’re forgiven, Kitty.”

He seems to perk up at that, and once again his ring beeps with a loud noise. He hugs her gently, and Marinette wonders whether she should just kiss him now and save him the confusion.

But then hes already on her balcony, shouting one last ‘Bye!’ before he leaves. Well, so much for that.

Marinette decides that she is not one for romance, and slumps onto her bed. She still had no idea what they were to each other. She liked him, and he liked her, but both of them had shrugged at the opportunity to get together like an actual couple. 

Would this be a casual thing, then? 

She wasn’t sure, but Chat sure didn’t seem like the type to dabble in that. Thinking back to their conversation earlier, Marinette picks up her pillow and smothers her face with it. 

Tikki comes out of hiding and floats in front of her, Marinette can already picture the amused face the Kwami was pulling.

Great. This was just great. 

Whatever, she decides, as she tunes out Tikki and closes her eyes. This could wait until tomorrow. She didn’t care anymore. 

Or maybe she did a little, because before she fell asleep she remembers Chat’s face when she had accused him of punching her. A quiet snort accompanies her lull into darkness, as if Tikki is remembering the exact same thing. 

She had accomplished absolutely nothing today.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> personally i dont actually give a fuck  
> but if its gonna be a fuck  
> make it a good one

**Author's Note:**

> hi i haven't written in a long while im so sorry about the quality of this i s2g it could be counted as crack


End file.
